IPAQ 3630, connecting a Pocket PC to the Internet via your PC using the USB cradle, serial cable or IrDa link

2007-12-07

Original : http://www.tekguru.co.uk/EM500/usbtonet.htm
Initially, to connect the IPAQ to a windows computer via the serial sync cradle, use "Microsoft Active sync".

The methods shown within this tutorial allow you to access the internet using the following PC linkages:

  • USB Connection
  • Serial lead connection
  • IrDa connection

and then show how to configure Pocket Internet Explorer and InkSpot CE to access the Web and News Servers via your new linkage.


The stages involved are:
  • Obtaining the tools needed
  • Modifying the PPC's registry to create a new RAS Connection
  • Adjust the PPC so that it will use the new RAS Connection for synchronising with the PC
  • Changing the options for Pocket Internet Explorer so the new RAS Connection can be used for web browsing
  • Setting up the Proxy Server
  • Browsing the World Wide Web
  • Accessing Internet News Servers

It should be noted that my Internet Service Provider (ISP) has issued me with a static IP address which will not change. Other ISP' s may issue with a dynamic IP address which can change each time you connect to the Internet. These instructions do not contain data as to how you will have to modify the proxy server settings on the PC for a dynamic IP address - refer to the documentation provided with the proxy server software.


Obtaining the tools needed

To follow these instructions you will need to obtain:

  • Pocket PC - Registry Editor
  • Desktop PC - Proxy Server Application

Pocket PC Registry Editor

For this I can recommend the PHM Registry Editor which can be found at http://www.phm.lu/Products/regedit.asp.

Local mirror of version I used.

Although this is still being developed it works perfectly and is free of charge.

PC Proxy Server

At least two Proxy Server applications can be recommended; WinGate and AnalogX Proxy. These instructions have been written using the AnalogX Proxy PC program which can be obtained from the AnalogX Website at http://www.analogx.com/.


Modifying the PPC's registry to create a new RAS Connection

!!!! WARNING !!!!
I take no responsibilities as to what you may do to your device when you change the registry. If the modifications are made incorrectly you can seriously damage the operation of your PPC. I recommend you take great care when making the changes. If anything goes wrong it's on your head not mine. You have been warned.

Here we go, this is the only really scary part of the operation as if it goes wrong you may have to hard reset your PPC to get it working once more.

So if you are ready away we go with the six steps involved in creating the new RAS Connection:

1) Backup your PPC

Backup the Pocket PC either via serial or USB connection to the PC, or via backup software to the MM card. This gives you a life line just in case something does go wrong.

2) Run the Registry Editor and locate the RAS entries as follows

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Comm\RasBook

You will see a list of the currently available settings

Example:

...
'115200 Default
'19200 Default
'38400 Default
...
'Infrared Port
...
'USB Socket Default

We're particularly interested in the following:

  1. 'USB Socket Default' if you wish to link via USB
  2. '115200 Default' if you wish to link via a serial connection.
  3. 'Infrared Port' if you wish to link via IrDa.

Our task will be to create a new key into which we will copy this key's data.

3) Create the new key

Create the new key with any name you like, as long as it doesn't have the ` prefix at the beginning or it won't show up in the list.

It should be noted that when creating the key you should create it as type 'Binary value'.

You could name the new keys as:

  1. USB Dial
  2. Serial Dial
  3. IrDa Dial

Here the key has been created and entitled 'USB Dial'.

We will call this key the 'YYYY Dial' key - see later.

4) Copy the values from the 'xxxxxxxx' key

'xxxxxxxx' = 'USB Socket Default', or '115200 Default', or Infrared Port'

Go to the relevant 'xxxxxxxx' key and copy the 'Entry' data value.

As the PHM Registry Editor does not yet support clipboard operations (copy and paste) you must use the built in keyboard to copy and paste the data.

Tap on 'Entry' to view the actual key value - the data should already be highlighted. Tap on the input selector to bring the standard keyboard on to screen and then tap the [CTL] and [C] buttons to copy the data.

5) Paste the copied values into your new 'YYYY Dial' key.

Move into your new 'YYYY Dial' key and tap in the 'Value data' box.

Tap on the input selector to bring the standard keyboard on to screen and then tap the [CTL] and [V] buttons to paste the data into the key.

Finally modify the 'Value name' to read 'Entry'.

6) Soft reset the device

This is the easy part. Ensure you have no applications running on the PPC and then reset the PPC. Once the PPC has been reset you will be able to use the new 'YYYY Dial' RAS Connection.

NOTE: Do not go into the Connections screen and modify the 'YYYY Dial' connection in any way - doing so will change the settings and you will have to go through the copy process once more to recreate the Connection.


Adjust the PPC so that it will use the new RAS Connection for synchronising with the PC

Go to 'Settings' - 'Connections' tab and select the 'PC Connections' icon.

Select your new 'YYYY Dial' RAS setting from the drop-down list. Here 'USB Dial' has been selected.


Changing the options for Pocket Internet Explorer so the new RAS Connection can be used for web browsing

Go to the 'Settings' - 'Connections' tab and tap the 'PC Connections' tab.

Select your new 'YYYY Dial' RAS connection from the drop-down list.

Check 'Access remote content automatically'

Check 'Use proxy server'

Type the IP address of your PC** in the 'Address' box and the port of the Proxy server that should be running on your PC.

** - If your system uses a dynamic IP address, that is one that changes each time you connect, and you are using the Analog proxy then the IP address should be set to 192.168.55.100 as this is the IP address of the Analog proxy server.


Setting up the Proxy Server

Once you have downloaded and installed the AnalogX Proxy application you should set it up as follows:

  • Turn on the services you require. Here I have activated HTTP for Pocket Internet Explorer and NNTP for the InkSpot Newsreader.
  • Fill in the data for your news server
  • Ensure Proxy Binding is left as disabled.


Browsing the World Wide Web

Before running the Pocket Internet Explorer you must:

  • Ensure you have a live connection to the Internet running on your PC, either dialup or via LAN, ADSL, etc.
  • Ensure you have the AnalogX Proxy Server software running.
  • Ensure the AnalogX Proxy Server icon in the PC's Taskbar is green - indicating all is running without problems.

You can now run the Pocket Internet Explorer and turn on the Address Bar (GO bar) via 'View / Address Bar'. You can now input the URL data into the address bar and browse away.

Done!

Netgear MA401 in PPC2000

2006-05-05

How to make your Netgear MA401 card to work with IPAQ and Pocket PC 2000.

Original article from http://www.pocketpcfaq.com/faqs/wl100driver.htm

Linksys WPC11 driver supports WEP and is the driver i choosed.
The driver name is WPC11NDS.DLL


Installation

Do not insert the card just yet.
Put IPAQ in cradle, start Active sync, start Linksys driver installation om THE MAIN COMPUTER, in the end of the installation the driver file will be tranfered to the IPAQ.
Reset the the IPAQ by pressing the reset button, start up and insert the Netgear MA401 card. When prompted for driver, type in WPC11NDS.DLL

DONE!


Serial internet connection opie Ipaq and WXP

May 24, 2006

(Original guide http://www.handhelds.org/howto/win2kppp/win2kppp.html)

So in the file /etc/hosts on the ipaq, we will add the two following lines by using the text editor with the command: nano
/etc/hosts

192.168.0.3 ipaq
192.168.0.4 desktop
Then you should have these lines in your file now:

127.0.0.1 localhost familiar
192.168.0.3 ipaq
192.168.0.4 desktop

Now you can call the machines using their names (desktop or iPaq) instead of their ugly IP. (you can try a ping ipaq on the iPaq) Now we are pretty close to finish the configuration of the iPaq, we just need to add two more lines to the file /etc/ppp/options using nano /etc/ppp/options. The lines are:

ipaq:desktop
connect '/sbin/chat CLIENT CLIENTSERVER'
Your file should look like this now:

-detach
defaultroute
nocrtscts
lock
lcp-echo-interval 5
lcp-echo-failure 3
usepeerdns
/dev/ttySA0
115200
local
asyncmap 0
ipaq:desktop
connect '/usr/sbin/chat CLIENT CLIENTSERVER'

Now, the configuration of the iPaq is over. We now have to configure the win2k desktop.

Configuration of the desktop

This might be the hardest part, just follow the instruction below and everything should hopefully be fine. We will try to explain each step when we can. First we have to create a new connection, to do that, simply click on Start>Settings>Network and Dial-up Connections>Make New Connection. Luckily just after the welcome screen, you should get the following window asking for the connection type, just choose Connect directly to another computer then click on Next.

Next steps are to choose the desktop as a Guest then to select the correct communication port. Then the wizard should ask if you want to create this connection for all the users of the desktop or only for the current one. The final step of this wizard is to choose a name; we could use iPaq as a name. Click on finish.

Just after the wizard you will get the connection window, unfortunately we have to modify few things before it can work. Click on Properties. (you can come back to this step by doing a right-click on the iPaq connection then properties. You should see that window:

I don’t know why I often get the direct Parallel connection despite we told the wizard that we want to use the Communication cable between two computers. Click on Configure then set the Maximum speed(bps) to 115200, uncheck the Enable hardware flow control and check Show terminal window . The current window should look like this:

Click on OK then click on the tab Options and uncheck Prompt for name and password, certificate, etc.

Now we have one more thing to do and that will happen in the Networking tab of the iPaq connection properties that should look like this:

We have to click on TCP/IP then properties. In the current window you can specify the IP address like you did on the iPaq for the desktop, but it’s not required so we won’t touch it. Just click on Advanced then unclick Use default gateway on remote network or you will not be able to access other network than the one with your iPaq when you will be connected.

Well, one more thing now, go to the control panel and open the Phone and Modem Options then click on the Modems’ tab. Select your Communication port then click on Properties.

In the properties window just change the Maximum Port speed to 115200.

You are all set!

Connection to the iPaq using PPP

You may have some difficulties at that point. I hope not. Open the iPaq Connection, you should get two windows:

and

In the Pre-Dial terminal Screen, you may have different things depending of the state of your iPaq, if you just rebooted you should get the same screen as you see on the screenshot. Then log on as ppp then click on continue. But you may be already logged on so you should have the shell prompt now (#), just type login ppp then enter and click on continue. (you may have to hit enter before getting the shell prompt). (If you get the ATE1: NOT FOUND error message, do not care, it’s a Windows stuff) Hopefully after few seconds you should get a warning screen like this:

Just check Do not request the failed protocols
next time
as we do not need IPX/SPX protocols, we are totally satisfied with TCP/IP. Then click on Accept. You should get the following screen that makes smile:

You can check or uncheck the checkbox depending if you want to smile every time you connect. And click Ok.

Now you can connect to the ipaq with putty, but the ipaq can not get updates with ipkg yet.

Install Proxy+ on the desktop. In the web interface, go to security, secure interfaces 192.168.0.0-10, and secure clients 192.168.0.3. Restart proxy+.

IPKG uses a configuration file stored in /etc/ipkg.conf if you edit that file (vi comes pre-installed with the familiar base installation) and look a the section titled 'Proxy Support' you'll see 4 lines for configuring the http proxy, ftp proxy, proxy username and password. Just uncomment the lines you need by removing the '#' at the start of the line and entering the appropriate address:port, for me that was "option http_proxy http://192.168.0.4:4480"

WGet is a useful utility to download files from ftp or http servers, to configure this to use a proxy you have to add a .wgetrc file to your home directory, /root in the case of familiar as you can't really add more users. In this file you'll need the lines:

http_proxy = myproxy:port
ftp_proxy = myproxy:port
proxy = on

Time to test, ipkg update, sucess!

LINUX ON IPAQ

May 24, 2006

www.handhelds.org

I tried both GPA and opie and afterall i liked OPIE better for my 3630.

Installed software OPIE:
Pim: Calender, Drawpad, TextEditor
Applications: Clock, Console, FileManager, OpieSheet, Remote, SystemInfo, WebBrowser
Settings: Apperance, Button, Date/time, DocTab, Launcher, Light&power, Medium mount, Network, PackageManager, Recalibrate, Security, Shutdown


Settings:

/etc/kismet.conf       add "source=hostap,wlan0,kismet"

edit /etc/init.d/gpsd for correct port, /dev/ttySA0

2 terminals open, one kismet, one 'telnet 2947' r for raw data, p for position, otherwise no pos in kismet?

Lirc on OPIE

Install opie remote, "ipkg install opie-remote". Lirc shoud be installed as well.

Add kernel-module-lirc-sir, I did it in the packet manager.

insmod lirc_sir

Disable serial console login in inittab to allow gpsd to use the serial port /dev/ttySA0

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